INT: Christopher Walken

Known
primarily for playing intense, unstable characters in films like THE DEER HUNTER,
Christopher Walken lends his considerable talent to more lighthearted fare this
week in the WEDDING
CRASHERS.He plays â get
this â the Secretary of the Treasury, and father of two daughters who become
the targets of crashers Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson.It may not be the most challenging role heâs played, but itâs
certainly one of the unlikeliest.

Walken is
no stranger to comedy. He first garnered acclaim as Diane Keatonâs shady
brother in ANNIE HALL.And his Saturday
Night Live performances are legendary â just walk into any random bar at
around midnight and youâre likely to find some drunken frat guy begging for
âmore cowbell.âHey, it could be worse
â at least they donât yell âShow me the money!â anymore.

JoBlo
Note: I don't normally add my two bits to Tom's great write-ups, but this Walken
interview has got to be one of the grooviest that I've personally ever read on
this site. Of course, "grooviness" is all relative, but Walken's
honesty is great here, and some of his deadpan responses are amazing. The man
gets "sad" when people don't recognize him on the street...tee-hee.

Christopher
Walken

You
play the Secretary of the Treasury in this film.In another life, could you see yourself getting into politics?

No.And that was really the first thing I noticed about the part.I thought it was so interesting that they would ask me to play the
Secretary of the Treasury.Itâs
bizarre.

What
were some of your favorite memories of shooting the film?

It was a
wonderful, you know, lots of things about it:a
wonderful cast, the director is terrific.It
was a very good script; even before I met anybody, you could see it was a good,
funny script.But, then, for me it
was something different, to play a father, a good guy, the Secretary of the
Treasury.Thatâs the first time
Iâve ever played anybodyâ¦ what can I say?Trustworthy.(Laughs)

People
have mentioned that when you sense people are in awe of you that you have an
easy way of disarming them and making them comfortable.

No.Iâve heard that, but thatâs not true.Iâve never noticed that anybody treats me that way.I think what happens is that the audience, I think, because of all the
parts Iâve played that were villains, or something like that, that there is an
expectation that Iâm going to be villainous.Thatâs why itâs good to do something different.

Like
a music video.

Or this.You know, I play, basically, a nice man.

And
you had a good time.The director
said he wrote in the scene where you dance.Are you finding that, after the Fatboy Slim video, everybodyâs writing
in scenes for you to dance?

I didnât
know that.They didnât write it
into the scene.You know, itâs a
wedding; of course, people dance.Iâve
danced in movies where it wasnât gratuitous; I just started to dance for no
reason.Maybe Iâve done that too
much.But in this movieâ¦ sure,
itâs a wedding.It makes sense.

Have
you ever crashed a wedding?

Noâ¦ no.Iâve crashedâ¦ you know, when I was a kid, I suppose I crashed some
parties.A wedding is different.You have to have the clothes, you have to know some facts in case
somebody catches you.

What
do you think of these young actors now?

Theyâre
wonderful.Now, thereâs probably
more good young actors than ever.

Was
it easy for you to get into your role?

Yeah.This wasâ¦ to be with these people that are all very talented and young
is nice.And you can see that Vince
and Owen, even when they werenât acting, you could see that they like each
other.They enjoy each other.So, thatâs good.

You
seem to have an offbeat sense of humor, and so does Owen.I was wondering if there was a special bond there.Did you guys connect at all?

You know,
we didnât.We went to work and had
fun there, but I didnât know anybody really.Owen is very nice.Heâs
quiet.Heâs a quiet man.I didnât get to know him, no.

How
about Vince?

Vinceâ¦
you know, Vince is big.Heâs a big
guy, and heâs a big personality.Yeah,
I probably got to know Vince a little better.(Laughter.)

Could
you elaborate on that a little?

Vince
isâ¦ wonderful.Fun. Heâs
a big guy.

Heâs
got a sense of humor.

Yeah.And heâs a big personality.Heâs
not quiet.

Do
lots of younger actors come to you for advice?

No.You know, actors, as far as I know, they never talk about acting.Never.They talk about
movies, they talk about girls, they talk about restaurants.But they donât say, âWhat do you think is my motivation?â

I
just thought, a younger actor would, because youâve had so much experience
thatâ

No.I remember when I was a young actor, an older actor said to me,
âDonât work so hard.âThat was
good.(Laughs)

Do
you refuse scripts often?

Iâm more
inclined to say yes.

Why
is that?

Because I
like to work.

Do
you have plans to do more comedies?

Iâm
going to one this summer.Iâm going to
make a movie with Adam Sandler called Click.

Who
do you play in the movie?

Itâs
hard to say.(Laughs)No, itâs very difficult to talk about a movie before you make it
becauseâ¦ every movie Iâve ever made, when I see it, itâs different than I
thought.

Whatâs
it about?

This
movie?

Yeah.

Itâs
about a man who goesâ¦ and I donât want to say too much.Itâs about a man who goes back and forth in his life.He sees the future and the past.

What
do you think about your celebrity status?

Itâs
very difficult to know.Obviously,
some people are more famous.Some
people think Iâm famous, some people donât know who I am.Fame is relative.

Do
you enjoy it?

Yes.If I was an actor at my age and people didnât recognize me, I would be
very depressed.(Laughs)As a matter of fact, sometimes when I walk down the street, time will go
byâ¦ you can tell when people know you.Even
if they donât look at you or say anything, you can tell that somebody saw you
and that they know who you are.And
if I walk down the street and nothing happensâ¦ I get sad.And, then, you know, like a miracle, an angel, somebody will say, âHey,
Chris!âAnd then I go, âAh!Well, itâs okay.â(Laughs)

Chris,
youâve built this great reputation and great career doing these intense roles.In the last few years, have you made a conscious effort to try to reverse
that because it actually was a stumbling block to getting different kinds of
roles?

I think
youâre right.Nowadays, if I have
a choice, I try to stay a little bit away from things.Iâve done so many villains.And,
also, for a long time I did not get certain parts.Now, I get to play somebodyâs uncle, somebodyâs father.That took a long time.So,
for me, just in terms of thinking about career, I try to stay away from bad guys
too much.

Now
that youâre playing a father, and you donât have children of your own, do
you wish that youâd had that emotional experience?

I donât
know.I mean, I pretend.It may be better.I donât
thinkâ¦ I got into movies late, and I donât think I could afford children.If I had had children â and, also, I traveled all the time â I
donât think I would see them.I
donât think I could give them a lot of things.My wife always worked, so we always had two jobs.Itâs good that I didnât have children.Good for them.(Laughter.)

Whatâs
a typical day like for you?

I live
kind of in the country.I live in a
nice place.With trees.My favorite thing is to have a script or maybe two scripts, to be at home
and study them and learn the part.

Any
hobbies?

No.I donât play sports.No
sports.No golf, tennis.

Do
you go online at all?

I donât
have a computer.You know, I donât
have a cell phone.I donât have a wrist
watch.

You
act like youâre cavalier toward acting itself â âDonât work too hardâ
and all of that.But do you ever
wonder where that scary guy, that intense guy, where you drew that from?

I didnât
do it.I think itâs justâ¦ first
of all, it has to do with before I became a movie actor, I was in the theater,
and I almost always did comedy.And
musical theater.But in the movies I
translate into something a little villainous, I think, because, physically,
itâs how you look.And Iâm pale;
Iâm naturally pale.But, also, the
first two movies I made that people saw were bothâ¦ I was a disturbed person. In
Annie Hall, which was the first really popular thing I did, I was driving into
traffic.And in The Deer Hunter, I
shot myself in the head.And I think
that that was very early, and that established something, that there was
something wrong with me.(Laughs)